Charles Barkley ‘so pissed’ ESPN overshadowed NBA Finals with Dan Hurley, Lakers talk
Charles Barkley was in for a rude awakening when he wanted to hear about the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final on ESPN on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news that the Lakers were “targeting” UConn basketball coach Danny Hurley for their vacant head coach job — a stunner given there had been no smoke there previously and all signs had pointed to Wojnarowski’s colleague JJ Redick being the guy — and it became the primary talking point on the network for much of the day.
Barkley appeared on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me” with Dan Dakich on Friday and when asked about Hurley, he immediately launched into how upset he was with ESPN for fixating on him so much during their talk shows.
“I’m not going to lie. I love Dan Hurley. This has nothing to do with Dan Hurley and good luck with him if he goes to the Lakers. But I was so pissed,” Barkley began.
“With Game 1 of the Finals and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals coming on [Saturday] — for them to spend the first hour talking about what if Danny Hurley goes to the Lakers? I was so pissed yesterday. I had to turn my TV off. I’m not going to lie. I’m like, this is how stupid they are.
“Y’all got The Stanley Cup Finals and the NBA Finals and y’all are talking about a team that’s irrelevant. And I’m like, whoever’s doing that programming have got to be the stupidest, most bone-headed people in the world. I’m like, if he goes, [then] we’ll talk about it.”
Barkley continued to question the people who were making the call to discuss Hurley instead of the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup.
“But to just go in there and blow air for an hour and then say, ‘Oh, by the way, we got Game 1 of the Finals coming up tonight.’ I was like, ‘Who in the hell is running that programming over there?'” he asked.
“I was like, OK, there’s nothing but speculation. But you got Game 1 of the Finals and you got Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which I’m really pumped about because, you got Florida, who lost in the finals last year, and you got a whole country of people [in Canada] and you got those games as a network, and you spent the whole time talking about what if Danny Hurley goes to the Lakers?
“I’m like, what kind of idiots are running this network? I said, that was crazy. Like I say, I love Danny Hurley. I love his family. I love his story. I love it because he’s a basketball purist, but I just thought it was so stupid of ESPN yesterday. It’s like, wait a minute, y’all got the biggest game of the NBA season coming on tonight. And y’all spent the first hour talking about if Dan Hurley goes to the Lakers. I was like, come on man.”
